Fav. loads for .257 Wby Mag???

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Whisky Creek

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What's your favourite loads for .257 Wby Mag? Got a box of 75 grain Hornady V-Max, a box of 115 gr. Nosler Partitions and a box od 115 gr. Nosler Ballistic tips. Got some RL25 and RL19 on hand too. It'll be coming out of a Mark V Ultra Lightweight with 26'' barrel. AND I'm not looking to blow her up or burn her out prematurely. Just good, quick and accurate hunting loads.
Thanks,
CLINT
 
What seems to work very well for me is 75.0 gr of RL-25 behind a Nosler 100 gr Partition, all touched off with a Federal 215 primer.

Caveat emptor! That's a stout load, and probably over max in some manuals. It does not, however, give any excess pressure signs in *my* rifle, and brass life is good. Accuracy is more than acceptable, and trajectory is laser flat (3 inches high at 100 yards, 10 inches low at 400 yards).

I used that load to shoot 3 deer and an antelope this year, all at distances ranging from 240 to 310 yards -- all four of them were bang-flops :dancingbanana:
 
I have shot a 257 weatherby mark V for about 10 years. I think there is nothing better for deer. Absolutely devastating.
The load I use is 71 grains of R22 with a 117gr Hornady. Shoots good laser flat. i have shot deer from 26 to 500 yards same effect. This is probably over max in a few manuals. Accross the crono it is 3450.
 
ruger-ruger said:
I have shot a 257 weatherby mark V for about 10 years. I think there is nothing better for deer. Absolutely devastating.
The load I use is 71 grains of R22 with a 117gr Hornady. Shoots good laser flat. i have shot deer from 26 to 500 yards same effect. This is probably over max in a few manuals. Accross the crono it is 3450.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a wee bit over the max of 66grs. That is a hot load!
 
I just double checked my reloading book (hornady). It says that 71 grains is max. I am sure it must be right I have used this load for 10 years. I also forgot the bullets are moly coated.
 
Which edition of the hornady manual is that ruger-ruger. I have the sixth edition of their manual and its' showing max load of 64.8 grains with the RL-22. Nosler's fifth edition shows max load of 73 grains with a 85 grain bullet for 3780 fps..... And 444, which manual is your load from?
Thanks,
CLINT
 
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I got my load from Alliant's data on their website. I would tread carefully, as it is better to start low and work up slowly. Beats a seized action or case separation :eek:
 
Mine is the third or fourth edition. I can double check (I think fourth).I can get you a copy. I know the Hornady manuals are usually the warmest. Allliant website is quite different. I have shot this load in my gun 4 ten years. Brass life is average. No flattened primers, shells eject easy. Not sure why there is such a large difference.
 
ruger-ruger said:
Mine is the third or fourth edition. I can double check (I think fourth).I can get you a copy. I know the Hornady manuals are usually the warmest. Allliant website is quite different. I have shot this load in my gun 4 ten years. Brass life is average. No flattened primers, shells eject easy. Not sure why there is such a large difference.
Click to expand...

I decided to run that load through Quickload and comes up as generating 73000psi :eek:

The 66gr load is almost 60000psi and shows 3320fps from a 26" bbl. I would not go above 64-65grs.
 
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